Pride Before Fall
by Canadian Pixie
Summary: The last hour of Cedric's life. The Third Task in GoF, From Cedric's POV.


A/N: I realized I'd never read a fic from Cedric's POV so I decided to try writing the Third Task from his POV. Always from someone elses POV or a different take on Harry's. So, enjoy this one!  
  
**************************************************************************** ******  
  
As much as I hate to admit it, my head was in a thick fog as I made my way down to the Quidditch pitch along with the other Triwizard Tournament Champions. I fought through it as best I could, running over various curses, hexes and spells as we followed the stone steps down the hill. At the bottom a huge hedge stood before us, running as far as I could see. Suddenly, my mind began to race, trying to think of all the things this hedge could contain.  
I heard Professor McGonagall assure us that she and some of the other professors would be around, to send red sparks up if we had a problem we couldn't get ourselves out of. I heard her mention the word maze and I had to remind myself that I'd been told before that this hedge was only the beginnings of an enormous maze. As I continued to think of this, Ludo Bagman's voice filled my ears.  
"Ladies and gentlemen, the third and final task of the Triwizard Tournament is about to begin! Let me remind you how the points currently stand! Tied in first place, on eighty-five points each--Mr. Cedric Diggory and Mr. Harry Potter, both of Hogwarts School!" I couldn't help it but I beamed proudly up at the stands as my name was shouted out amongst my peers. I listened as Bagman announced the Bulgarian Quidditch superstar from Durmstrang, Viktor Krum, and I shot him a polite but competitive glance. Bagman then announced the fiery French beauty, Fleur Delacour, the Beauxbatons Champion. I gave her a small smile as she waved to her family in the stands.  
  
I instantly turned my full focus and attention back to the maze, preparing for the race inside against my fellow Hogwarts competitor. I heard Bagman ask us if we were ready and I felt myself nod in agreement while my mind screamed that I needed a few more moments to compose myself and prepare. He blew a whistle and we ran into the maze. As soon as we entered, it became so dark I couldn't see anything. I waved my hand in front of my eyes to prove myself right and grabbed my wand out of my robes. I muttered 'Lumos' and we walked into the maze a little further, shoulder to shoulder. Soon we came to a fork and looked at each other.  
"See you," Harry said, making his way to the passage on the left. I nodded at him and took the path on the right just as we heard a second whistle blow. Our competition just got heavier. I ran down the path some, turning where I had to. I came to a T about five minutes later and chose the right way again. As the whistle sounded for the third and final time I followed the path as it curved back around to the left. Just as I turned the corner, I saw the most hideous thing I'd ever laid eyes on. In front of me stood the largest Blast-Ended Skrewt ever. It had to be at least ten feet long. I shouted spells and jinxes at it, hoping something would subdue it.  
"Stupefy!" I yelled, pointing my wand at its head. It bounced off its shell, but I had done some damage as it staggered forward a little. I tried the spell again and this time the Skrewt fell back a few feet. Not wanting to stand around all day and fight it, I ran by it. The creature, though, wasn't completely out of it as he shot at me with his sparks and managed to set the sleeve of my robe on fire. As I ran down the path slapping the flames dead, away from the Skrewt, I heard some movement ahead of me. I lit the tip of my wand again and held it up to see Harry standing in front of me.  
"Hagrid's Blast-Ended Skrewts!" I explained as I saw Harry glance at the smoke coming from my sleeve. "They're enormous - I only just got away!" I shook my head at him and continued straight down the path. I ran for about fifty feet before I came a corner in the maze. It seemed darker than the rest of the maze but began to walk around the corner nonetheless. Just then, a girl's scream echoed throughout the maze.  
"Fleur?" I thought out loud as I realized something had wrapped itself around my ankle. I looked down to see a vine wrapping itself around my ankle and travelling it's way up my leg.  
'Devil's Snare!' I thought as I struggled to free myself. After a few minutes of struggling I remembered it only held tighter the more you struggled. I soon remembered the spell for sunlight and cast it. The vine quickly unwrapped itself from my legs and torso and recoiled back into the darkness. I walked quickly around the corner and down the path to the next awaiting obstruction. I wandered around, making wrong turns leading to dead ends many times before I finally found a path that seemed to be going the right way. All of a sudden something appeared in front of me. I held my wand high above my head to try and get the weak light from my wand on whatever it was and gasped in shock at what I saw. My father stood before me, a pained expression on his face. I took a step closer to him and cleared my throat.  
"Dad?" I took another step closer and held my wand down a little to light his face. I called him again and he looked up at me, tears in his eyes, sadness masking his face.  
"Oh Cedric. You're my only son and I'll always love you for that, but you've failed me boy... failed me," my father spoke. I stood in shock for a moment, my mouth hanging open to say something but words escaping me completely.  
"Cedric, you've failed me. You might as well send up your red sparks now. There's no point in you continuing now. The Cup's already been claimed. Everyone's already finished son. Harry won it, such a disgrace," my father continued. My lower lip trembled very slightly and my eyes welled with tears.  
"But Dad, I'm not done yet. I haven't reached it yet, no one has. I'll get the Cup, just for you. You'll see. You'll be so proud of me Dad," I explained, walking close to give him a hug. As I touched him to hug him, he made a strange noise no human could ever make.  
"Dad?" I said, reaching out and touching him again. He made the same noise then flashed me a smile filled with broken, dirty teeth. It wasn't my father!  
"Who are you and what have you done to my father?" I shouted at the man. He just continued to smile at me. After a moment, he attempted to speak but only a garbled sound escaped his lips. Curious, I tried the first thing that came to mind.  
"Riddikulus!" I shouted, pointing my wand at the man. His face fell into a sad look as there was a loud crack and he then disappeared into wisps of smoke.  
  
'Bloody boggart,' I thought to myself, wiping the tears off my face. I took one step forward and then I was pushed from behind and fell to the ground. I turned slightly on the ground and looked up to find Krum standing above me.  
"Careful where you're going Krum. No one has to get hurt," I told him as I started to get up. His face turned into a twisted smile and he offered me his hand. I took it gratefully and dusted my robes off.  
"See you," I said and continued on my way through the maze. I expected Krum to turn at some point, but he didn't. He continued to follow me until I couldn't take it anymore.  
"What are you doing?" I yelled. "What the hell d'you think you're doing?" He stopped walking and held his wand down at his side, holding his head down as well. I waited a minute for his answer but he continued to keep his head down, so I turned to leave. Then I heard him speak.  
"Crucio!" I fell to the ground, screaming. The pain was unbearable. My limbs jerked around involuntarily as I squirmed and thrashed around on the ground. The pain... the pain was so bad I could almost tell I would pass out soon. It felt like hours. I thought I was going to die when I heard another voice. If I had been able to, I probably would have cried tears of happiness to have help, but the tears that fell then were still from the pain.  
"Stupefy!" I heard the voice yell. Krum's wand broke from me and the unbearable pain stopped coming, though it still coursed through my veins as I lay on the ground trying to catch my breath. I held my head up long enough to watch as the spell hit Krum in the back. He stopped in his tracks and fell to the ground where he lay motionless. I put my head down and covered my face as I heard footsteps approach me.  
"Are you alright?" I heard as the person grabbed my arm. I looked to see Harry and relief flooded me.  
"Yeah," I said breathlessly. "Yeah... I don't believe it... he crept up behind me... I heard him, I turned around, and he had his wand on me..." I stood up, shaking and we both looked at Krum.  
"I can't believe this... I thought he was all right," I heard Harry say.  
"So did I," I told him. He asked me about Fleur then. I realized I had forgotten about her with all the excitement in the maze. I quickly turned the conversation back to Krum though.  
"Should we leave him here?" I asked, not caring much about him.  
"No, I reckon we should send up red sparks. Someone'll come and collect him... otherwise he'll probably be eaten by a Skrewt," Harry explained.  
"He'd deserve it," I muttered, but raised my wand anyway and sent up a shower of red sparks. I watched for a second as they hovered high over Krum. We stood around in the darkness then for a moment, not entirely sure what to do.  
"Well... I s'pose we'd better go on," I suggested.  
"What? Oh... yeah... right." I watched as Harry took the path on the left then took the right one myself. I held my wand out in front of me, it's tip still glowing. I followed the path as far to the right as I could. Just as it began to turn to the left a little, I met an interesting creature. I approached him and found it odd that he had a bowl of water on his head. I stood back from it and did my best to remember what it was. It bared its teeth at me just as I remembered it was a Kappa. Everything I'd heard from Hagrid came flooding back as I took a step closer to the Kappa. I was supposed to trick it into bowing. I tried bowing first. It just stared at me. I tried it a second time and it continued to stare. The third time I tried it, I held my bow, hoping it would follow. Instead, it took a step closer to me and bared its teeth again. I stood up and tried to figure out a way to get it to bow. I put my hands in my pockets as I thought and produced the answer to my problem. I pulled out a Sickle from my pocket and casually threw it on the ground. I pointed to it and encouraged the Kappa to pick it up. He looked at it but didn't want to bend down and pick it up. Then another idea struck me.  
"You can keep it if you want. All you have to do is pick it up," I told him. He seemed to be biting his lip in thought before it finally bent forward to pick up the shiny coin and all his water spilled out of the bowl on his head. It fell to the ground in a rejected state and I passed it quickly. I ran down the path, wanting more than ever for this whole Tournament to be over. I ran around one corner as I saw light ahead and almost ran into something very large prowling the pathway. I swallowed hard and saw that it was a sphinx. It spotted me and smiled before sitting down in the middle of the path.  
"Not much further," she reassured me. "But first you must get past me."  
"Alright," I told her. "And how would I do this?"  
"You must answer my riddle. You get but one guess. Should it be right, I will allow you to continue on your way. But if you answer wrong, I will attack you," she explained. I nodded.  
"May I have the riddle please?" She smiled at me and recited:  
"The beginning of eternity  
The end of time and space  
The beginning of every end,  
And the end of every place."  
I repeated it in my mind several times, trying my best to come up with an answer. I had no idea what it could be. I soon realized I had been standing there for close to ten minutes and that the sphinx seemed to be becoming impatient.  
"Sir, the answer?" she said. I nodded, mumbling to myself at the possibilities. Suddenly it came to me.  
"The beginning of eternity, the end of space and time, the beginning of every end and the end of every place. Could it be the letter 'E'?" I asked. The sphinx smiled at me again.  
"Good luck young sir," she said as she moved out of the path to allow me to continue. I shouted my thanks as I jogged down the pathway and into the final stretch of the maze. I turned one corner and before me, about fifty feet in front of me, I saw the Triwizard Cup standing on a plinth. I broke into a full run and sped down the pathway towards the Cup. I entered the clearing and was less than ten feet from it when I heard someone shout at me.  
"Cedric! On your left!" I glanced quickly and saw a large shadow looming on the left side of the hedge. I took longer strides, trying to pass whatever the shadow may be, but I tripped in my own foot and fell forward, my wand flying out of my hand. I watched as it flew ahead of me, too far to reach without getting up for it. I could sense the shadow moving closer and closer to me. Then I heard the voice shout again.  
"Stupefy!" I felt the shadow turn from me then. I jumped up and turned to look at what had been chasing me. I was stunned to see an enormous spider, and it was now heading for my saviour, Harry. I went to grab my wand as I heard Harry frantically shouted out spells to stop the creature.  
"Stupefy! Impedimenta! Stupefy!" I watched in horror as the spider picked Harry up. I watched as he kicked at the spider and then I heard him yell as the creature bite him with its pincers. I raised my wand in an attempt to help.  
"Stupefy!" I yelled, but it did nothing to subdue the beast. Then I heard Harry shout again, this time a Disarming spell. Relief washed over me as I watched the spider drop Harry. He fell about twelve feet to the ground, his bitten leg not holding his weight. He aimed his wand at the spider's belly and I did the same.  
"Stupefy!" we both shouted. We watched as the spider was thrown back, taking out one of the hedge walls as it flew through the air. I waited until it came to a complete stop before calling to Harry.  
"Harry! Are you all right? Did it fall on you?" I asked, worried. I heard him answer a "No" and watched as he looked down at is leg. It was full of blood and some sort of thick goo for the spider. He stood up and leaned against the hedge as he looked around.  
"Take it then. Go on, take it. You're there," I heard Harry tell me. I didn't move from my spot, merely stared at Harry for a long time, lost in thought. Then I looked at the Cup. I wanted it so much to show my father he had a reason to be proud of me, even if I hadn't encountered my real father in the maze. I had earned it, but so had Harry. Truth be told, Harry probably deserved it more than I did. I did my best to hide the fact that I wanted it so badly and turned to look at Harry again. I took a deep breath.  
"You take it. You should win," I told him. "That's twice you've saved my neck in here."  
"That's not how it's supposed to work," Harry told me. He argued some more, about how I had reached it first, that he couldn't win any sort of race on his injured leg. I took a few steps away from the Cup, as much as I didn't want to.  
"No," I told him firmly, shaking my head.  
"Stop being noble," I heard say impatiently. "Just take it, then we can get out of here." I watched as Harry steadied himself still holding onto the hedge.  
"You told me about the dragons," I pointed out to him. "I would've gone down in the first task if you hadn't told me what was coming."  
"I had help on that, too," he said angrily. He began to wipe up the blood on his leg with his robes. "You helped me with the egg - we're square."  
"I had help on the egg in the first place," I confessed.  
"We're still square," Harry said. He tested his leg. It shook as he put his weight on it. I was afraid he may have broken it, but it only seemed sprained.  
"You should've got more points on the second task," I told him. "You stayed behind to get all the hostages. I should've done that."  
"I was the only one who was thick enough to take that song seriously! Just take the Cup!" he yelled at me.  
"No!" I said again. I took a few more steps back and I was standing next to Harry. I was set in my decision. As much as I wanted that Cup for my family, my House, and myself Harry deserved it more than I did.  
"Go on," I told him, folding my arms across my chest. I watched out of the corner of my eye as Harry looked from me to the Cup. He looked back at me with a dazed look in his eyes for a moment then he opened his mouth.  
"Both of us," he said.  
"What?" I asked.  
"We'll take it at the same time. It's still a Hogwarts victory. We'll tie for it." I stared at him.  
"Are you sure?" I asked him, unfolding my arms.  
"Yeah. Yeah... we've helped each other out haven't we? We both got here. Let's take it together," he said. I couldn't believe what I was hearing. I stood there for a moment, almost waiting for Harry to say it was a joke. When he didn't, my face broke into a huge grin.  
"You're on. Come here." I grabbed his arm and helped him limp towards the Cup. When we reached it we both held a hand over one of the Cup's handles.  
"On three, right?" he asked. I nodded. "One - two - three -" We both grabbed a handle and immediately something felt wrong. There was a jerk behind my navel and my feet left the ground as I held tight to the Cup, the wind howling in my ears, colours swirling by me.  
  
Harry and I slammed into the ground and we both fell over.  
"Where are we?" I heard him ask. I shook my head and stood up, pulling Harry up as well. We both looked around and determined quickly that we were no longer at Hogwarts. We were standing in a graveyard. I spotted the outline of a small church to our right, behind a cluster of yew trees. There was a hill to our left, an old house sitting upon it. I looked down at the Cup then at Harry.  
"Did anyone tell you the Cup was a Portkey?" I asked him.  
"Nope," he told me. He looked around the silent graveyard. "Is this supposed to be part of the task?"  
"I dunno," I told him. I was nervous. "Wands out, d'you reckon?" Harry said yes and we pulled our wands out. I saw Harry was always looking around. I got the feeling we were being watched.  
"Someone's coming," he said suddenly. Looking into the darkness, we saw a figure walking towards us. I never saw a face, but noticed they were carrying something. I stared at the short, hooded man as he made his way closer and closer to us. I saw Harry lower his wand out of the corner of my eye, but I kept mine steady. He looked at me and I gave him an odd look. The man stopped next to a tall headstone, six feet in front of us. All of a sudden Harry's face twisted in pain and his wand slipped from his fingers. He put his hands in front of his face and sank to the ground.  
  
Then I heard a cold voice speak from the dark.  
"Kill the spare." Wait! The spare? Why kill the spare, and who exactly was the spare? I never had a moment to think on it though. I heard a second voice utter the words I never wanted to hear with my own ears.  
"Avada Kedavra!"  
I watched as a green light sped towards me, in slow motion. I suddenly saw my girlfriend, Cho Chang, her beaming face dancing before my eyes as I grabbed the Golden Egg from beneath the Swedish Short-Snout in the First Task. Her face quickly materialized to that of my mother's, her cheeks streaked with tears as I emerged from the lake, unharmed, at the end of the Second Task. My father's face then appeared as it had looked when I saw him in the chamber off the Great Hall. His face was full of pride, but in his eyes I could see a great deal of worry and anguish for me, his only son. His face became foggy then and disappeared, and then I felt the green light hit me in the chest. It felt like a pinprick for a second.  
  
Then, everything went black.  
  
************************************  
  
I got the riddle from here: 


End file.
